Infochemicals for prey finding in aquatic organisms

Many predatory and parasitic organisms use chemical signals, so called foraging kairomones, to locate their prey or hosts. So far, foraging kairomones have been studied mostly for terrestrial organisms. Only few data exist for fresh water organisms, especially for invertebrates.  Therefore, the project studies the use of foraging kairomones by freshwater invertebrates in leeches and water beetles. Currently, the focus of our work is on the following topics:

• Which freshwater organisms use foraging kairomones for prey- and host finding?
• Are the foraging kairomones prey specific?
• Which chemical compounds are used as foraging kairomones?